Where could I download data for Advance-Decline-Unchanged issues for NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ as far back in history as possible (NYSE data starts in March 1965, AMEX data starts in February 2002, NASDAQ data starts in January 1978.) The best resource for download I was able to find until now is unicorn.us.com/advdec which is really great. Unfortunately with data only from 2002. I am looking for NYSE Up/Dn Issues and volume since 1965. Thanks for any hints where to get this.
–
user1392Sep 16 '11 at 9:53

Does anyone have any experience with OptionData service?
–
TimkaOct 31 '13 at 1:20

What do you mean by that? Nominal, real, corrected due to monetary-base-change, corrections with Y-other-things? What is your goal?

I have been able to download (historical) stock prices via yahoo and google.

Alas looking historical data from Google/Yahoo's screeners can be highly misleading and making conclusion based on it very dangerous. Please, note that you cannot always trust the data, sometimes they are nominal or real, and sometimes you won't know the type of data. Google/Yahoo are only third-parties to provide you the historical data.

Commercial Data

CSI Data: it claims to be the provider to Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other resellers

Yahoo's providers here and notice the small writings at the bottom here

Would you say Yahoo finance's daily data with adjustment for dividends and splits are reliable in the sense that you could use them for research? Because I'm having trouble finding data thats adjusted for dividends/finding dividends data separately. Do you know if the dividends are adjusted for by the date the dividends are actually paid or on the ex-dividend day?
–
Good Guy MikeMar 7 '13 at 19:31

The Thomson Reuters Tick History database provides millisecond-timestamped tick data going back to January 1996, covering 45 million OTC and exchange-traded instruments worldwide. The database currently updates at a rate of 1 million messages per second and is around 3 Petabytes uncompressed. It is a comprehensive, accurate and precise historical record of market behaviour. Includes API and MATLAB API access. Contact Sirca for more information.

I did a fair amount of searching for a good source of historical data and I came across Norgate Investor Services. They provide the data in MetaStock format. I used the data for analysis in MATLAB via Metastockread. They have data for the US, Australia and Singapore.

Here's a Python script to parse the meeting dates from the federalreserve.gov page that you linked: pastie.org/2566958. It pulls the dates from the url of the "Minutes" link for each meeting.
–
joshayersSep 21 '11 at 6:26

Has anyone seen something that is up to date on this?
–
Michael WSAug 8 '12 at 15:31

The master list already has dukascopy listed for forex historical tick data. Dukas also now has selected CFDs of indices, metal/energy, and individual stocks. The forex data for the majors go back to 1997 or so. It's free, so you get what you pay for. The data that is more recent (last 5 years) has almost 0 gaps on the majors and crosses.

What was also not mentioned was that you need to either use their jForex platform to download the data or you'd have to download the data manually from their website. This could become quite cumbersome. There are two tools that will automate most of this for you:

With those free tools, you can also export the data into csv format, which can then be used in most charting applications. In the case of metatrader 4, you need to convert the csv into their binary format (.FXT). Birt's free csv2fxt script can help with that. I also used Birt's TDS to get variable spreads with the backtests done in mt4.

Does anyone have any experience with or knowledge of livevol? They are the only source I've found for historical intraday options data, especially including implied volatility and Greeks calculation, and pricing seems not bad. Even the real-time service seems decent, although it is unclear how it could potentially be tied in to an API.

I've used Livevol in the past. They gave me a URL that I was supposed to download a CSV from every 30 seconds. I wrote a script to wget the file and check its embedded timestamp, then save to disk. A "subscriber" would monitor the destination directory via inotify() and load any new CSV. Effectively, I had used the file system as a ticker plant, which got around the API issue.
–
chrisaycockJul 27 '11 at 18:43

@chrisaycock Thanks for the info. Was it a good service overall (reliable, accurate, any issues)?
–
Tal FishmanJul 27 '11 at 22:59

A different trader wanted it for a few months for his model. I didn't use the data myself, so I'm not sure what its quality is like.
–
chrisaycockJul 28 '11 at 14:26

Thinknum.com is a new financial data provider. We have financial time-series data and data for building cashflow models. Thinknum's plotter is similar to tools like GS plottool and JPM data-query in that it allows users to manipulate time-series data using mathematical expressions.